Home-studio based in Jacksonville, Florida 1124 Riviera St. Jacksonville, FL 32207 (904) 398-7668
35mm Film vs Medium Format Negatives vs Digital Capture
When quality is important the more information you record the better!
Standard 35mm negatives record 75% less detailed information than professional medium format film and less than most professional digital cameras.
The more information captured initially, the more quality options you have later. Most people relate this to enlargements. When you make a 16" x20" print from a 35mm negative you can see the imperfections and the image is slightly 'fuzzy' all over. Whereas a 4x6 print may look just fine. This is because the lack of detail information becomes more apparent on enlargements. (This is even more apparent on the old 110 or disc cameras as the negative was much smaller than a 35mm negative.)
Professional photographers have traditionally used medium format film and cameras because the quality allows for better quality enlargements without image degradation. Medium format equipment, processing, etc. is much more expensive than 35mm and most amateurs can't afford it. (see also film vs digital)
In photojournalistic photography often 35mm film is used for black and white images as most publications usually print photos small or the quality isn't as critical. Today's trendy black-and-white wedding photography often plays on the 'lack of quality' in the 35mm B&W image and renders photos that are sometimes a little blurry, grainy or less detailed. These 'special effects' often make the black and white images more artsy and etherical.
Prior to 2005 film capture had a much greater dynamic range than digitally captured images, today due to continuing advancements in sensors, processes and printing technologies the characteristics of a properly developed digital print now exceed that of a film print. The simple minded would have us believe that the world is only black and white, reality is there are lots of shades of gray. Black and White film has a much greater dynamic range (up to 9 stops) than color film (up to 7 stops) or professional digital sensors (up to 7 stops) and is able to capture all those various and diverse shades of gray which add a much greater depth and richness to an image making it so much more interesting, fulfilling and rewarding. Our newest digital sensor is capable of capturing 12 stops of light.
Large group photos should have maximum details so you can see each persons face clearly. A 35mm or standard-sized digital file will produce inferior quality. Some people say the better quality doesn't matter unless you were planning on getting a 'big' enlargement. Even though you may not be planning on getting a big enlargement, the quality can become an issue if you crop or edit a photo for your album.
The top image on the left is the original proof as it was originally taken. The bottom image is the cropped and edited image printed as a 5" x7" for the wedding album. If this were from a 35mm color negative the enlargement would be noticeably fuzzy and not as nice as the other album photos on the same page in the series. But because we began with a medium format negative that recorded lots of very detailed information, we were able to do this creative cropping without the loss of quality. Notice also that we were able to change the orientation from horizontal to vertical.
It's these little quality details that truly separate the professionals from the others. We are pleased to continue to offer and maintain our top-of-the-line quality at a fair price. We're not cheap, but we are well worth the money spent! (If you have an appointment at our studio we will show you the original prints that look much better than this computer screen!)
Medium format equipment is 100% professional and therefore designed to the demanding specifications of the professional. Today we shoot the best quality 54mb RAW digital files which allows for comparable initial-capture quality as medium format film prior to post-capture processing. After post-capture processing of the professional digital image the final printed image is better than a film-only process. We prefer the Top-Quality professional lenses designed by Carl Zeiss.
"You deserve the best!"
Totally Guaranteed!
If you don't like it, we will re-do it!
~ no problem, no worries ~
Large group photos should have maximum details so you can see each persons face clearly. A 35mm or standard-sized digital file will produce inferior quality. Some people say the better quality doesn't matter unless you were planning on getting a 'big' enlargement. Even though you may not be planning on getting a big enlargement, the quality can become an issue if you crop or edit a photo for your album.